Alarm over trolley numbers in Galway
Nearly 400 patients were left on trolleys and chairs in overflowing wards in University Hospital Galway over a six month period this year – increasing the risk of cross-infection for all patients.
The alarming figures are on top of the 1,725 who were left on trolleys in the Emergency Department during the same period, according to new figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation.
According to the INMO, all 2,100 patients who failed to get a proper bed were put at increased risk of cross-infection.
The organisation compiled the Trolley Watch (based on Emergency Department admissions who are left waiting on trolleys) and Ward Watch (those on trolleys or chairs in wards in excess of that ward’s capacity) over a six-month period from March to September this year.
Patients forced to wait on trolleys and chairs in overflowing wards is a process which the INMO claims is used to artificially reduce the Trolley Watch figures.
In UHG, the number of patients on trolleys between March and September this year was 1,725 – down by more than one-fifth on the 2,214 recorded for the same period in 2012.
That left UHG in sixth place in the country for patients left on trolleys – behind Beaumont (3,466) and Connolly (2,351) in Dublin, Mid-Western in Limerick (2,394), Our Lady’s in Drogheda (1,787) and St Vincent’s in Dublin (1,765).
However, earlier this year, the INMO also began compiling ‘Ward Watch’ figures as a separate measure of hospital overcrowding.
This counts the numbers of additional patients, on beds, trolleys or chairs, on inpatient wards/units above its capacity.
In UHG, there were 374 patients left on trolleys or chairs in wards over the six-month period – the eighth highest rate in the country’s public hospitals after Connolly (1,445), Mid-Western (1,301), Tallaght (978), Midland Regional in Mullingar (815), St Luke’s in Kilkenny (727) and Wexford General (723).
Meanwhile, Trolley Watch figures for Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe show there were 466 patients left on trolleys in the ED over the six month period, up 14% from 409 during the same period last year.
“The INMO launched this measure of hospital overcrowding as a direct result of continual feedback, from our members, that, in some hospitals, additional beds/trolleys were being placed on inpatient wards potentially compromising the care of all patients through increased risk of cross infection and/or poor staffing levels.
“In addition, our members are concerned about the loss of dignity and privacy to patients arising from this recurring overcrowding,” a spokesperson said.